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Zed is home

Actually, the journey home could have been better. I got on the train, rejected my reserved seat (facing backwards) and settled at a table. A middle-aged couple joined me. She sat opposite, he sat next – I’d have thought that they should have faced each other or sat side by side, so I already had personal space issues.

Darling, she talked. Awfully pukka, but not actually strident, but she never shut up for a minute for the whole journey. She and her husband had some papers and magazines each, she commented on every damn article in hers, passed them over and commented on everything in his/now hers. Additionally, I know the results of her asthma test, her opinions on wine, rugby and Mike Tindall in particular, and a number of other subjects too. I’m not sure whether she was trying to impress her husband or me (she caught my jaundiced eye a few times), or just generally unable to shut the hell up, but I was edgy. I couldn’t concentrate on my book. In fact, I went to sleep for a few minutes, just to get away.

One of the reasons I was glad to have a chance to talk to Chris, was that he is a delightful long-term blogger who is not afraid to take breaks, sometimes protracted ones. I was slightly alarmed, a few weeks ago, when Diamond Geezer talked about his daily blogging compulsion. He’s blogged far longer than I have…but all the same. I do feel a bit of it and, in nearly six years of blogging, I feel a mild pride that I have always written at least as many posts as there are days in a year. However, maybe less should be more? I suggested to Christopher that maybe I should wean myself off the daily post and that I might write better for it, and he thought that was a good idea…not that he suggested I write badly…no need to say a word, Chris…

Anyway, I’m mulling. And I think that, next year, I’m going to miss odd days or even weeks, on occasion. I used to not write when I was away, but that’s changed with the iPhone. Though that’s another matter, especially when I go away on my own. It can be that I want to share experiences with when I don’t have anyone to talk to in the evenings. Hmm. But, quite self-centredly, I asked for advice and received it dispassionately, so the least I can do is take it on board. If I do start to take breaks – and I don’t think that will be easy – I’ll give you fair warning. It isn’t less of a contribution to blogging, which I enjoy very much, just a personal thing.

I write daily and sometimes it’s pretty good and sometimes it’s pretty dull. It’s a sort of discipline, to write every day, because I found, a long time ago, that if I don’t write regularly then I feel that, when I do write, it has to be ‘better’. Six years on, I should be over that, and maybe my discipline should go in a different direction.

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14 comments on “Zed is home”

Re blogging: Do whatever makes you happy! I often read your posts when I’m about to turn the lights out, I don’t always comment, but you have slowly become my bedtime reading!We all blog differently – I’m a comment box chatterer!Sx

Daily…gulp…. I just about manage to put out one week and even then, through natural slippage, I only manage about 48 posts a year. I do over complicate the blog with sections and pictures, which just seems to take endless time to load. Plus Mrs B does a bit of editing to make sure the words and punctuation are vaguely readable…Don’t worry I always add more after her final edit t o re-introduce some mistakes – just for the authenticity (so you know it’s genuinely one of my slap dash postings )and entertainment value it gives to some of the readers who just like to find the mistakes…

As for the old couple on the train, the seating arrangement sounds creepy and the conversation a little on the dull side… better luck next time you might get some juicy gossip, which is great unless they leave the train before you hear the best bit – there should be a law against that sort of behaviour, forcing them to leave you details of what happened….

I’m sure if you blogged less often your posts would be just as enjoyable to read, which they already are, very. And it’s nice not to feel tied.

I take loads of time off blogging because I have to think so hard to get a post or a comment done. Translating thought into words is not my strong point and I often read whole pages of blogs and then realise that although I’ve loved reading it all I have absolutely nothing to say.

Thank you all, you’re very encouraging and kind. I love the feeling of having a regular connection with people – the numbers of people reading daily varies, but over a week is surprisingly consistent – but, whilst I’ve deliberately created a blogging discipline, I’m starting to feel that I am in danger of it being a habit – and I’m not keen on routine.

Welcome, Blacklog, great comment and thank you. I’ve bookmarked your blog, haven’t time to read now but will be back later.

Before you make any rash decisions about not blogging every day, you need to know that my work day always starts with a coffee and a perusal of your latest missive. I should add that this is done before my actual start time, so I am not being paid for reading your blog! Therefore, any move to sporadic blogging will probably ruin my working weeks. No pressure……

Post when you want to.When there’s something you want to say, say it and if there isn’t don’t. You shouldn’t feel any pressure to ‘perform’.Don’t worry about ‘quality’ either, you don’t need to and you’ll get performance anxiety.

Regarding annoying people on the train; the sole reason I invested in an MP3 player 6 years ago was so that I could plug it in an drown out other people’s conversations when travelling on public transport.

Regarding blogging – I seriously cut back my Facebook activity in favour of doing more blogging but real promptly expanded into the gap. I struggle to find time to read other people’s blogs, let alone write my own. Maybe in the New Year…

I should have fished out my headphones, Liz, quite ostentatiously. I didn’t think of it. More fool me. I’m half in love with your husband, btw.

I’m not concerned, all it stops me doing, occasionally, is going to bed before I’ve written a post. But, having set myself the intention of blogging daily, for a good reason, I now feel that I’ve fulfilled that intention and maybe should break the habit. I’m not really a habit person.

DG, I found because I looked for the name, not through you or anyone else. I just thought there must be a blogger called Diamond Geezer (Weeza blogged as Diamond Weeza, for a while)

I don’t think I could manage to blog daily; it’s once a month these days and I feel no urge to post anything at the moment. But I do still like reading other people’s blogs and I comment occasionally, if I have something to say. There’s no pressure, post if you wish, and don’t if you don’t.

The Unobservant Eye of Z

Dramatis personae:
My husband, Lovely Tim or LT for short (though he is actually tall).
My late husband, the Sage, aka Russell.
My children: Dearest daughter Weeza, who has London Ways, is married to Phil. Their daughter is Zerlina Buttercup and their son is Augustus Bufo. Elder son - Al X, is married to Dilly. Their children are Squiffany Virgilia, Maximus Pugsley and Hadrian Swallow. Younger son - Ro married to Dora and their two-year-old is Rufus Russell.
Big Sister: Wink. She lives in Wiltshire, 230 miles away, but we're much closer than that.
We live with our cat Eloise, a black tortoiseshell half-Ragdoll.
Bantams live in the garden and cats live in the barns but we feed them and they have ambitions to be pets too. In addition, cows come to visit in the summer. Mostly, they stay in the fields. None of them has got a hoof in the door yet.
There is an annexe to the house, where Roses lives and her beloved, Lawrence, spends a lot of time there. Her son, Boy, lives there too.

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Updating takes too much memory, sorry - but then I'm not very young any more, so am hanging on to the memory I've got. Please don't look for any significance in the order - I'm not drunk but I am disorderly.

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Oh, what's the problem? This is hardly Great Literature. I'd appreciate anything taken from here being acknowledged, and I might change my mind if I'm suddenly proclaimed as the Literary Queen of the Blogosphere - but I probably wouldn't. Do what you like, just as long as it doesn't extend to defamation of anyone, even me.

Actually, you want to pass off what I say as your own, I might even be flattered. Let's face it, who cares anyway?